


I Ask the Traffic Lights If It’ll Be Alright They Say “I Don’t Know”

by DogsAreTheBest312



Series: I Promise That You'll Never Find Another Like Me [8]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Pete's World (Doctor Who), Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DogsAreTheBest312/pseuds/DogsAreTheBest312
Summary: While stuck in Pete’s World as the stars go out, Rose Tyler thinks about the one man who can save them.I dress to kill my timeI take the long way homeI ask the traffic lights if it'll be alrightThey say, "I don't know"
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: I Promise That You'll Never Find Another Like Me [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732978
Kudos: 8





	I Ask the Traffic Lights If It’ll Be Alright They Say “I Don’t Know”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! Quick note this time.
> 
> This is another one where I took just one line, not the song as a whole. Taken from Taylor confirming that this line is about how you look up sometimes when you need a sign.
> 
> This is set during the time that Rose was stuck in Pete’s World. I haven’t listened to _Rose Tyler: The Dimension Canon_ (it’s on my list) but it’s canon to the tv show.
> 
> Song of the fic: [“Death By a Thousand Cuts” by Taylor Swift](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTEFSuFfgnU)

Rose Tyler stepped out of Canary Warf and stared into the zeppelin-filled sky. Today marked three years since she’d been stranded in what The Doctor called Pete’s World. Ever since her last conversation with him, she had been heading the team that was building what they’d decided to call a dimension canon. She needed to get back to him. She needed to know the end of that sentence.

The theory for the canon was simple enough: punch a hole in the walls between the universes and send a person through. To do that, they were — never mind, it was complicated. Very complicated. Thirty-two months had passed and no real progress had been made. It was all theories and testing and cameras they sent way on timers but never saw again. Rose knew it might be a hopeless cause, a goal they never achieved. She didn’t care. She had to try. Over the past few months, stars had started disappearing from the night sky, and she knew only one man could help them.

Rose walked down the street towards her flat. She’d moved out of her parents’ mansion about a month after the project began. She visited them often, constantly doting on her younger brother Tony. But she’d needed her own space and wanted to make sure that she was able to come into the office on moment’s notice if something new was discovered. It had been unanimously decided that Rose would be the one to jump between the universes, searching for The Doctor. He’d said it was impossible, but she was willing to spend the rest of her life trying to defy that statement. But they had yet to even know if they could successfully send anything through, let alone a human unharmed.

As she stood on the corner waiting for the light to turn, Rose looked up at the traffic lights over the intersection. Unfortunately, they didn’t hold the answers she was looking for. They just swayed gently in the breeze, doing their job successfully, unlike her. She had no clue what she was doing, no idea where to start. She couldn’t keep up with any of the technobabble of the scientists she had recruited. But she was trying. Any time not at the office was spent learning. Theoretical physics, astrophysics, anything she thought might be useful. She’d managed to get her A-levels soon after arriving in Pete’s World. She hoped The Doctor would be proud.

The street light turned, and Rose finished her walk to her flat. She entered the building and opened the door to where she spent her time when not at work. That’s all it was. It wasn’t home. Home was where The Doctor was and had been for a long time. The traveling, the luxuries, even the TARDIS were all extras. She probably would even consider this flat home if he were there.

Rose remembered the time when they thought they’d be trapped on the slow path, sitting there at a table on an impossible planet. She wondered how The Doctor truly would’ve coped. She liked to think he’d be ok since they were together.

Rose settled in and started making dinner, a quick meal of noodles and sauce. Once it was done, she took her bowl to her living room, as she didn’t have a kitchen table. She barely had any furniture or decorations at all. She didn’t need them, as she was hardly there. The most expensive thing she’d bought was the telly, and even that was only used for news reports. It was something her mother complained about every time she visited, but even Jackie Tyler was half-hearted in her remarks. They all knew Rose wasn’t there to stay. There was no sense wasting money on things she’d never use.

Rose was startled out of her musing from the sound of her mobile ringing. Sighing, she put her dinner down and picked it up, answering the call at once when she saw it was Tosh, possibly the only chance they had at actually achieving their goal. She also had gone home several hours ago. For them both to be called after hours, either something was very wrong or something was very right. Rose felt a lump in her throat as she lifted the mobile to her ear.

“Captain Tyler? You better get down here. One of the cameras we sent out came back after the timer went off. And it has pictures on it.”

Rose jumped up, hanging up on Tosh without realizing it. Dinner already forgotten, she grabbed her coat and ran out the door, barely remembering to grab her keys. She wouldn’t return until almost midnight and go back early the next morning. The pictures the camera had taken proved it. They were finally making progress.

* * *

Rose Tyler stepped out of Canary Warf and stared into the zeppelin-filled sky. Today marked three days since she had saved the multiverse (with some help). Three days since she’d seen The Doctor disappear from Bad Wolf Bay, again. There had been tears, there had been anger, and there had been shouting, all wrongfully directed at The Doctor left with her. He stood there and let her get it out of her system, then held her as she cried. They sat and talked after, working through both their grief of what they’d lost but also the anticipation and happiness for what they had gained.

Rose felt a hand grab hers and turned to see The Doctor, now going by the name Corin (don’t ask her where he got it from, he’d always be The Doctor to her), looked up as well. He turned to her and pulled her closer to him. The two didn’t speak to one another, for they didn’t need words to be able to know what the other was thinking. Knowing that everything was going to be ok now, they walked together down the street toward their flat, their home. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, together as it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Short, sweet, and to the point. I like this one. I didn’t mean to, but it’s exactly 1,000 words.
> 
> This is the only pure breakup song on this album, and Taylor has said that it’s about a friend’s experience, not her own. That second verse! I wrote a Reddit post about how it goes through the stages of grief. I’m not going to repeat myself, so if anyone’s interested [here it is.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/gncc2x/death_by_a_thousand_cuts_that_second_verse_guys/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x)


End file.
